Blockchain technology first and foremost is a potential disruptor for the current financial system. The natural evolution of public ledger blockchains such as ours makes it a key sector for growth over the coming years. This is not the only application where blockchains can add value however.
Let us consider the core benefits of blockchain and cryptography and how they might disrupt different industry sectors.
Traceability
Blockchains keep a chronologically verified record of data, it can be any data, it doesn’t have to be financial transactions. Logisitics companies could use blockchain to prove that goods were picked up, transferred between depos, dispatched and delivered at a certain time via a blockchain. The data once written to the blockchain can not be edited or manipulated providing reassurance to customers.
Food products could be traced back to their origin via a blockchain solution. Imagine going into a supermarket and being able to scan a QR code to find out how far away a piece of fruit had travelled to get to you.
Shipping industries are often hit by hold ups in a system that is still based around endless paperwork. If the companies came together on a blockchain platform then the whole system could be digitized and international parties could authorize movements without slowing down the transit.
Sourcing could be automated, when a manufacturer uses a part they scan it and it automatically orders a new one from the supplier. A record is kept of the part number, price, time of usage, expected delivery, actual delivery etc.
Identity Certification
ECDSA cryptography (private key, public key signing) is a incredible technology which has been around for some time but is now getting the limelight it deserves.
With a cryptocurrency private keys are held by the account holder and public keys are distributed publicly to verify that the holder signed the transaction. This same technology could be used to verify a persons identity.
Anything that requires a signature could now be digitized. Legal contracts is an obvious sector that is long due a shake up. Accounting and auditing is something else that could benefit from a certified digital record. There was a project announced at Consensus 2018 that wanted to verify a job candidate’s academic achievements via a blockchain so a user could prove they got the diploma/degree that they show on their CV.
Products could be signed by their manufacturer as an anti-counterfeiting measure. The designer and luxury industries are hit every year from imported fake goods costing the companies billions and tarnishing their reputation. Is anyone impressed by a Louis Vuitton bag these days?
Account Management
The most common case currently for blockchain accounts is a store of funds but this could also be used as management for all sorts of other systems.
- Gift/Reward cards could be tokenized improving transparency and security.
- Warranty and refunds could be stored in a blockchain to record a verifiable date of purchase, problem, redemption.
- Legal records of ownership for assets such as property could be store in public blockchains along with purchase details and legal information.
Trustless Networks
Truly decentralized blockchains are completely trustless. You don’t need to trust anyone else on the network to deal with them. Imagine something like online gambling where a poker game could be carried out with open-source logic code, verified independently by all players and funds are transferred back and forth in a ledger held on each players dApp. A potentially rakeless system that could revolutionize the gaming industry.
Automated self-driving cars could use blockchain technology to log the speed, location, battery life of their drivers in a private but verifiable way.
Voting
Politics could be revolutionised by digital voting systems using blockchain technology. Turn out would increase dramatically if we could vote using a simple app benefiting the democratic process. Corruption could be reduced and rigged votes could become a thing of the past.
On a corporate scale board proposals could be voted and logged using a blockchain to transparently record the results of each critical business decision.
Summary
Blockchain technology is going to have a huge impact on the global economy. Gartner predicts it could add $175 billion in business value by 2025 and 3.1 trillion by 2030. No matter what you think of cryptocurrencies you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone that really understands the technology and doesn’t think it will change the world.
The JSEcoin team aren’t ignoring these opportunities either. Already we have over 15,000 miners connected to our platform at any one time. This is a huge value proposition for bluechip companies that aren’t able to develop and market a full blockchain solution.
Our proposal is to offer subchain nodes which would be highly scalable because only a hash from the subchain would be stored in the JSE mainchain. These enterprise solutions could create industry partnerships with bluechip firms which will help build trust and promote the project.
https://jsecoin.com/downloads/JSEcoinEnterpriseSolutions.pdf